Bournemouth beach: Passengers on board boat that’s been seized reveal lifeguard’s warnings moments before kids killed
A DAD who was on a pleasure cruise by Bournemouth pier when two kids died says lifeguards made a danger warning moments before the horror incident.
A 17-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were killed and eight others injured during the horrors on East Beach at around 4.30pm yesterday.
A man in his 40s – who was “on the water” at the time – was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter but has since been released.
Earlier on social media there had been speculation the swimmers had jumped off Bournemouth pier and had been struck by a jet-ski.
However, in a press conference at the beach this afternoon Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Farrell ruled out the theory.
But cops yesterday sealed off a pleasure boat at a harbour amid fears the two kids had been caught in waves from a vessel.
Now Luke Owen, who had been on the boat with his family, has revealed lifeguards on the beach had warned people about riptides and not to swim close to the pier just before the incident.
But Mr Owen says he and other passengers had no idea what had happened until they docked up at the pier after the 40 minute trip.
He told the Mirror: “When we looked no one was on the beach and before we left everyone was on the beach. It was empty, everyone was just staring.
“I’m first thinking it was a shark attack, because I did hear there was a shark attack a few weeks back.”
Luke says the boat operator then told him that one person had been pulled from the water and one was still missing.
He explained: “As he’s told me that, we looked up to the sea and the 17-year-old was being pulled out. The ambulance came across and collected him.”
“Nothing really affects me but when it’s something like that it kind of hits you.
“Especially as I was with the family, my little one especially, I wanted to get out of there.”
According to the website Marine Traffic, the boat had visited Bournemouth Pier at 4pm, just minutes before the first 999 calls were made.
The Dorset Belle has the capacity to take 80 passengers on £15 pleasure trips around Poole Bay and Poole Harbour.
According to its Facebook page, the sea conditions around Bournemouth pier on Wednesday morning were said to be too dangerous for it to sail.
A statement on the page stated: “The sea conditions at Bournemouth pier are set to improve this afternoon..so we are planning of (sic) carry out at 16.00, 17.00, 18.00 & 19.00 round the bay…once we are happy with our berthing trial.”
It comes after it emerged cops were probing whether the wash from a boat could have caused the tragic kids to get into difficulty.
MP Conor Burns said he understood that a “surface vessel” was in the sea around Bournemouth Pier at the time of the horror.
He said: “It would seem not a far reach to draw a conclusion that while the vessel may not have physically touched the young people perhaps it created the conditions which made being in the water more dangerous by the speed it was going.”
The victims were among 10 youngsters who got into difficulty while swimming in the sea around the Victorian pier.
Desperate attempts to resuscitate the boy and girl were carried out on the beach before they were airlifted to hospital where they were later pronounced dead.
The girl was from the Buckinghamshire area and was visiting Bournemouth at the time. The teenage boy was from Southampton.
The other eight children, who were aged between 13 to 18, were rescued from the water by RNLI lifeguards and were checked over on the beach.